Bonham to the moon- As I said before, you couldn't be more right. That's why despite Bonham's lack of sheer complete technical virtuosity he is one of my favorite drummers ever. I say this with guarded tone, because to give him credit he had very good and clean technique and chops- he had some cool fast patterns worked out that are actually pretty difficult to learn at first.
The reason that sets him apart is how good and original his part selection was. I don't think we're putting him down. Faster is NOT better.
I think maybe you're thinking about what we're saying too much- I know Finn and I have the same opinion on chops- they're not even important to the strength of a musician. They are amusical factors. Someone can play fast and loud and shred and be perfectly musical or play very sparse and quiet and be perfectly musical and awesome as well. Look at who some of my favorite drummers are- Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Vinnie Colautia, Paul Motian, Ahmir Thompson and John Bonham. At least on recordings, the last three don't really play much chops. However, they're STILL some of my favorite drummers in the whole world. Those three drummers are all incredible mindblowing musicians because they have great musical ideas. Chops have NOTHING to do with it. Sometimes I like to listen to the "drum porn" like a fusion Vinnie or Weckl, but they're still both musical.http://www.keithcronin.com/licks/dyer_maker.mp3
I frickin' love this drum fill. It's one of my favorite fills in history. Technically speaking, most drummers on this site could probably learn to play this fill fairly quickly. To play it like Bonzo? I don't know if there's many. Maybe like Joe Morris or Gary Husband or Billy Ward out of the dudes on here right off the top of my head. What a great fill. I love everything he's ever been a part of- great conviction and sound. I could care less about a person's technique. I like to work technique a lot, maybe too much, but it's not a musical thing.B Bonham clearly had enough technique to pull off whatever he wanted extremely well. Finn or I have never claimed that Bonham was anything less than a legendary drummer. I think you're reading into it because chops don't matter for me.